Telecom Pro Stepping Down from Development Group; Contractor Returns to Airport Authority

ORLANDO-Musical chairs, without the music, is the name of the game at two of metro Orlando’s most influential quasi-government agencies.

Darrell Kelley is resigning March 30 as president of the 30-year-old Economic Development Commission of Mid-Florida Inc. His successor hasn’t been chosen. Jeffry Fuqua, owner of Amick Construction Co. which has built numerous Orlando area commercial ventures, returns as chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.

Kelley, 58, is leaving the EDC to try his hand in an unspecified entrepreneurial activity. He will stay on, however, as chairman of Schwartz Electronics Inc., an Orlando laser manufacturer. Kelley is a former Sprint Corp. executive with 38 years of telecommunications experience. He is credited with helping to relocate several companies to Central Florida since he took the EDC job in September 1998.